9.2.18

COMPARE AND CONTRAST.

The Feminist Business School, founded by Evergreen State College graduate Jennifer Armbrust, teaches that capitalism is an “economy that values masculine traits” such as “meritocracy,” “competition,” and “individualism.” The California-based site recently launched two more online courses to coach aspiring businesswomen on how to “topple the patriarchy” and promote a more “feminist economy.”

Shunning the “profit seeking motive” of traditional commerce, the Feminist Business School advocates that businesswomen adopt more “feminine traits” such as “gratitude,” “intimacy,” and “connecting with nature.”

Cooperation is more likely where there is mutual benefit. Profit-seeking is a way of identifying where such benefits might be present. But the temptation to do business whilst engaging in virtue-signalling never goes away, does it?

“There is no template for radical entrepreneurship. An out-of-the-box solution for feminist business doesn't exist,” the course description states. “Only you can engineer a business the embodies your values, fulfills your unique needs, and enlivens your purpose.” Just like the first class, the Structures and Support class will guide students along the process of “birthing a business” through the lens of feminist theory.

It will not teach business skills, such as accounting or marketing.

The school plans to host a virtual Feminist Summer Camp, which appears to function like a discussion group rather than an online course. The students will discuss “feminist entrepreneurship” with the goal of “sloughing off patriarchal belief systems and expanding our entrepreneurial vision.”

That's not likely to turn out well, but then, if you have the cast of mind that thinks getting your priors tightened at Evergreen is the road to success, and organizing summer seminars might land you that gig at The Nation or MSNBC, why, hang on to your illusions.

SMS are a German corporation, probably with prior experience in industry partnerships with technical schools there. Whether this academy will be open to expansions of the entrepreneurial vision to the liking of the Evergreen types is left to the reader as an exercise.